February 10, 2004:  Anxiously awaiting spring!!!!  I have all my seeds ordered and in hand.  The snow is just starting to melt off of the ground here in Central Indiana.  I am hopeful to be able to put up my cold frame in another 2 weeks.  Spring cannot be far behind!!

February 29, 2004:  Happy Leap Day.  Spring is here.  I put up my cold frame last week!!  I have no plants in there as of yet, but should within the next few days.  I started my lettuce seeds two days ago and I am waiting for them to germinate inside before moving them to the cold frame.  I have set up my hoop house over the garden area were I will be planting my lettuce.  This should help warm and dry the soil.  I have also placed plastic over the garden area where my onions will be planted.  I think this might help keep the soil from getting too wet before I plant my onion slips in early April (see pic below).  The weather has been relatively dry, so I was able to work the soil in one of my garden plots yesterday.

I have also been passing the winter by taking a Master Gardening class here in Indianapolis, IN.  I am currently about half way through with the classroom instruction.  I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND this class to anybody, regardless of gardening experience.

March 16, 2004:  We just had about 3.5 inches of snow here in Central Indiana this morning.  More than half of it has already melted (see pic below).  The temperatures have been a little below normal for this time of year.  I had to cover the top of my cold frame with two old bath towels on a couple of nights to keep the frame from getting too cold.  All the new seedlings in the frame seem to be doing well.  We had a low of 17 degrees one night last week.  I planted my broccoli, cabbage, and brussel sprouts seeds around March 6th.  They germinated rather quickly and I then moved them to the cold frame.  I planted my celery seeds yesterday and put them over my seed starting heat mat.  Looking forward to warmer weather.  I will be planting my pepper seeds in 4 or 5 more days.

March 26, 2004:  The weather has been very cold for this time of year.  The temperatures have finally increased to a little above normal for the past few days.  It has been somewhat dry here, but we are getting a good rain today.  Despite the cold, my seedlings in the cold frame are doing relatively well, although they are not growing all that fast.  My celery seeds sprouted a few days ago and I moved them to the cold frame.  I started my pepper seeds about one week ago and I am still waiting for them to sprout.  Today I started my Roma tomato seeds.  They should germinate in about 5 or 6 days.  I should be receiving my onion plants early next week!!  I am hopeful to be able to plant some of my lettuce seedlings into the garden under my hoop house by late next week.

April 4, 2004:  The spring planting season, at least for me, has arrived.  I planted my onion slips on March 27th and started planting my lettuce seedlings out in the garden under the hoop house on March 31st.  I always shoot for April 1st as the day I like to get at least some of the lettuce seedlings out into the garden.  I planted a few more lettuce seedlings yesterday.  I have no more room under the hoop house.  The weather has been a little colder than normal.  The low temperatures are expected to be around 25 degrees tonight.  The lettuce plants should be fine under the hoop.  I think I will bring in my pepper and tomato seedlings from the cold frame for tonight, just to be safe.  I will be starting some more lettuce seeds today, mostly the more heat tolerant varieties.  Please see pics below (taken March 29th) of my newly planted onions and what some of the plants inside my cold frame look like.

April 19, 2004: It has been a few weeks since my last entry.  The weather has been very very dry and very hot for this time of year.  The high temperatures were up into the 80's the last two days.  The ground is as dry as I have ever seen it for this time of year!!  Needless to say, we really could use some rain.  I planted my cabbage and broccoli plants about one week ago, and planted my brussel sprout plants a few days later.  They all seem to be doing well despite the heat and dry conditions.  I had to start watering all the plants in the garden.  I pulled the plastic down off of my hoop house that was covering the lettuce because of the heat.  With any luck I might be harvesting some lettuce within the week, hooray!!!!  My onions look awful right now, probably due to the weather.  I watered them real good a few days ago.  My tomato seedlings are in critical condition right now.  I left the plastic dome lid over the tray too long and literally cooked them.  I have already lost about half of them.  The others might pull through, but only time will tell.  My pepper seedlings are doing pretty good and I will be transplanting them into larger pots soon.  My celery seedlings are starting to get their first set of true leaves, but are still growing very slowly.

April 24, 2004:  Well, we finally received some much needed rain a few days ago.  The weather has also turned more "normal" for this time of year.  My onions seem to be doing a little better now.  I took my first harvest of lettuce on April 22.  I just pulled some of the outer leaves.  It made for a very nice early spring salad!!  My lettuce is really starting to take off now (see pic below).  I interplanted some carrot seeds between three rows of lettuce plants about 5 days ago.  I am curious to see how well they will grow there.  I gave up on my tomato seedlings, and went out and bought some plants.  I have not planted them out into the garden.  It is still a little early for them.  They are predicting a light frost for next Tuesday morning anyways.  My pepper seedling are doing ok, and I just repotted them into larger pots.  Both my tomato and pepper plants remain in my cold frame, for now.  My experimental celery seedlings are doing fine, but are still a little small.  They sure are slow growers!!  They are also still in the cold frame.  My broccoli, cabbage and brussel sprout plants are starting to grow and seem to be getting adjusted to the garden really well. I anticipate a good crop from these (knock on wood).

May 16, 2004: It has been 3 weeks since my last entry.  We finally received some much needed rain 2 days ago, nearly 2 inches.  Before that rain, the soil was VERY dry.   The weather has been very warm for this time of year.  I planted my pepper seedlings out into the garden May 6th and my tomato seedlings a few days before that.  All of them seem to be doing fine right now.  I also planted my first crop of bush green beans May 9th, and they have just started to germinate.  My lettuce is growing like crazy now and I continue to harvest that (see first pic below).  My onions just started to look somewhat better within the last week or so.  The rain will surely help them out quite a bit.  I also transplanted my celery seedlings May 9th, and they appear to be doing just fine (see second pic below).  I still need to side dress some organic fertilizer around my onions, peppers, tomatoes and broccoli plants.  While I was away 2 weekends ago, some strange plants appeared in the garden (see last pic below).  I think some of my neighbors planted these "seeds."
 

June 7, 2004:  Well, my gardening activities are hitting "full gear" right now.  I harvested my first broccoli head around May 28.  This is a full 3 weeks ahead of a normal year.  I have harvested some really monster sized heads of broccoli over the last week or so (see pic below)!!!  This looks to be my best broccoli crop I have had.  I had to replant some of my Jade green beans, because of poor germination.  Not sure what to make of that.  My early spring planted lettuce is pretty much through now.  I have replanted some more heat tolerant varieties of  lettuce seedlings about 3 weeks ago, and they seem to be doing fine.  All my warm season crops are growing like mad.  My onions look pretty good right now, and my celery is growing really well.  The weather has been decent, but we could use some rain this week.  A bad storm went through near here on May 30.  I witnessed a tornado move about 2 miles south which caused some pretty bad damage.  Luckily, no serious injuries were reported.

July 1, 2004:  The weather has been very dry here the past 3 weeks or so, almost desert like.  Needless to say, I have begun watering again.  First we received too much rain, now it has turned very dry.  I have struggled with the tomatoes this year, first because of too much water, now there is not enough.  Two of the plants have wilted tops.  The symptoms are the same for too much and not enough water.  I first noticed this when we had too much rain, but then they kind of recovered only to wilt again for lack of moisture. (See first pic below).  Time will tell if they will live.  I have started to pick green beans this week (YUM!!).  I also planted some more green bean seeds about 10 days ago.  I also started harvesting my cabbage last week.  The tops of my onions are already drying up and falling over, so they appear to be done growing.  The onion crop this year looks to be pretty poor.  My celery is growing really well (see second pic below) and I harvested a few stalks from my plants this week.  I heard celery was somewhat hard to grow, but it grew fine for me this first time without much effort, besides a little extra water (maybe beginner's luck).  I will be planting my fall broccoli and cauliflower seeds in seedling trays within the next few days.
 

July 28, 2004:  The weather has been very cool for this time of year, but we did receive some much needed rain over the past week or so.  My tomato plants have rebounded slightly and I have begun harvesting some of the tomatoes over the last week.  My onion crop was very poor.  The new onion variety "superstar" did not perform well at all.  It also has not proved a very good storage onion.  I think I will stick with the variety "candy" for now.  I have been harvesting my banana peppers now for about the last 3 weeks or so.  My green peppers are finally getting some good size to them and I will be harvesting them soon.  My second crop of green beans are starting to flower now, so it won't be long before I start harvesting them.  The new green bean variety I tried this year, "Jade" has not grown well for me at all.  The production from this bean was poor and it has not germinated very well either.  I did plant a crop of "Derby" green beans in my old onion plot two days ago.  They should be ready before the first frost.  I will be planting my broccoli and cauliflower seedlings within the next week or so. I will also be planting two plots of carrots within the next week, for fall harvest.

August 22, 2004:  Since my last entry it has been very dry.  We did receive some much needed rain two days ago.  I have been harvesting green peppers, banana peppers, and my super chili peppers.  The peppers have really come on in the last three weeks or so.  My tomatoes are still producing and it seems I will have a decent crop this year.  I planted my fall broccoli and cauliflower seedlings about ten days ago, and they are growing really well with all of the unusually cool weather.  I also planted my carrot seeds about one week ago and they have just started to sprout.  Harvest also continued on my green beans.  My newly planted green beans seem to be growing pretty well right now.  My fall lettuce seedlings are of decent size and will be planted in the garden within the week.

September 12, 2004:  It has been very dry since my last entry, so I have continued to water my plots.  My lettuce plants get a nice drink of water about twice a week.  My lettuce is growing really well now (see first pic below).  My two newly planted carrot plots have been getting almost daily watering to improve the germination of the seeds.  Most of them have germinated now and seem to be growing fine (see second pic below).  My late planting of green beans are almost ready to pick.  Harvesting continues on my pepper and tomato plants.  My late planting of broccoli and cauliflower plants seem to be growing pretty good.  I have been watering this plot really well on a weekly basis now.  Cabbage worms have begun to do some minor damage to these plants, so I have begun spraying them with BT.

October 3, 2004:  It has been VERY dry here.  We have not had any appreciable rain for 4 weeks now.  All of the rains from the hurricanes have missed us almost completely.  Needless to say I have been watering the garden regularly now.  We had our first frost of the fall season this morning.  This is about two weeks earlier than average.  I covered the crops I wanted to save with hoops or row covers.  I did not cover my tomatoes or peppers, but they looked undamaged.  Yesterday I harvested three large heads of broccoli.  Despite the lack of rain, my fall broccoli crop looks like it will be a good one.  I took a picture of one of the broccoli heads below.  My cauliflower is just starting to form very small heads.  Hopefully they will mature to full size in another month or so.  Harvest continues on my lettuce and and green beans.  My tomato plants continue to produce even though I have not watered them in over a month.  By far the biggest surprise for this year has been the production of my celery.  I am still harvesting celery stalks as they mature.  I have been harvesting celery since about the first week of July!

October 24, 2004: We FINALLY received some much needed rain over the past week or so.  My harvest of fall broccoli was completed today and I pulled up all of the plants.  My fall broccoli crop was pretty good this year.  My cauliflower continues to mature and should be ready to harvest within the next few weeks.  I pulled up my green beans, since they were pretty much finished growing.  My lettuce has continued to grow really well this fall, although the plants are a little more mature for this time of year than I would like them to be (see first pic below).  My fall planted carrots are growing really well now (see second pic below).  My brussel sprouts are about five feet tall and the sprouts are starting to plump up.  My tomato and pepper plants are still alive, but are not growing as fast since the cooler weather has set in.  I have been pleased with the fall harvest so far.
 

November 7, 2004:  The garden continues to grow, although much slower now.  We have not received a hard freeze yet, but one is predicted in the next few days.  I pulled up my tomato plants last week, and I pulled up my pepper plants today, although they were still alive, they had virtually stopped growing.  I continued harvesting lettuce and brussel sprouts, and began harvesting cauliflower last week.  I harvested three big cauliflower heads today, one head I think weighed nearly 5 pounds!! (see pic below).  I also harvested a few carrots yesterday.  The carrots are really sweet.  Overall, my fall harvest has been really good.

November 21, 2004:  Gardening activities continue, although at a much slower pace, this time of year.  I am still harvesting lettuce, carrots, cauliflower, celery, and brussel sprouts.  My carrots are growing well under my hoop houses (see first pic below).  I have just about finished harvesting all of the brussel sprouts (see second pic below).  The weather has been somewhat milder than normal.  I received my first hard freeze of the fall season one week ago.  I will probably finish my harvest on the celery this week.  I still have a few cauliflower plants still growing.  The gardening season is fast approaching the end.

December 19, 2004:  Over the last three weeks or so I finished harvesting the celery, lettuce, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts.  The weather has been milder than normal up until today.  The temperatures did not get above 20 degrees today and we had about one inch of snow overnight.  It looks like the very cold temperatures are here to stay for awhile.  I did get a chance to harvest some more carrots yesterday, before the cold front came through.  I still have some more to harvest under my last remaining hoop house.  I put another layer of shredded tree leaves over them to keep the ground from freezing.  My fall harvest has been very good.  This will be my last entry for this growing season.  Now is the time to start planning and ordering seeds for next year.  

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

December 30, 2004:  Well, I just had to make one more entry.  I just harvested the last crop from the garden today, my carrots.  Despite having about one foot of snow over them about 5 days ago, they look fine (see the 3 pics below).  The snow did a number on the hoop house, but it worked.  We also had below zero temps, but the carrots I pulled out of the ground looked fine.  The green tops were a little brown, but the shredded tree leaves and the snow pack kept the ground from freezing.  The seed catalogs have started to arrive in the mail, I cannot wait for spring.

Happy New Year!!!